hello everyone, and happy holidays!  i was wondering if anyone might comment
on an idea i had for a game.  the idea here is that if i have a good project
to motivate me, i'll teach myself Xwindows programming much faster...
 
the game idea is, of course, ferrets.  my first concept is to have a view of
a room (or perhaps a household) full of breakable objects, non-breakable
objects, and forbidden things/places.  you would also start with a certain
level of "sanity" and one ferret.  the idea is that every time a ferret
breaks something, you lose sanity.  ferrets would be able to move
non-breakable objects to help them get into the forbidden zones.  (a ferret
in a forbidden zone might flash red, for example, and your sanity would
decrease until you moved it into a safe zone).  further, the number of
ferrets would increase linearly (say, a new one shows up in the house every
two minutes or so of game time), but if you voluntarily get a new ferret
earlier than you should (perhaps click on a "new ferret" icon?), you get a
temporary boost in sanity.  your score, of course, depends on how long you
last before going completely insane.  :)
 
if your sanity is really low, ferrets about to do something bad might stop
and make a face at you first to taunt you.
 
i would like to work out the details of play concept and mechanics before i
start implementation, so i invite suggestions from anyone who has ideas
about this.  development and coding should take about a year or so.  when
i'm done, i'll make the source code available, but i won't personally port
it to mac or pc platforms (since i neither work with them nor know anything
about them).  others will be welcome to do so.
 
-D-
[Posted in FML issue 1423]